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Epicurean Encounters

Sous Vide: Chicken Legs with Truffles

Sous vide is a method of cooking food in a precise temperature water bath. It has been used in many commercial kitchens for a long time and has become readily accessible to home cooks with a plethora of different devices that are available to purchase.

Cooking sous vide is pretty effortless and this dish exemplifies it. There is a little prep and finish work, but it is relatively simple.

Picked up some nice chicken legs – thigh and drumstick - at Wholefoods. Slid my finger underneath the skin of the legs to create a pocket. Inserted some jarred black truffles and its oil in the pocket. Seasoned the legs with salt and pepper. Put them in a gallon-sized ziplock bag and into the water bath of 165F for 3 hours. At the end of three hours, removed the bag from the 165F water bath, put the bag on a tray and into the refrigerator. Once the legs have cooled (The legs took about 2 hours to cool. This dish can be made up until this point and kept in the refrigerator several days before finishing it.), the chicken juices in the bag became gelatin-like. Separated the chicken legs from the gelatin.

The chicken legs went into the oven – 450F broiler – for 15-20 minutes. The skin will turn golden brown and crispy under the broiler. If the legs are too close to the heating element then they might burn, so keep an eye on it. If the skin starts crisping and browning too fast, just move the chicken legs on a lower rack further away from the heating element. The goal is to have the chicken meat warm – it has already been cooked in the water bath – and the skin brown and crisp.

Meanwhile take the chicken juice gelatin in a sauce pan and heat. Let it reduce by about half. Add enough heavy cream so the mixture is about half chicken juice and half cream. Season with salt and pepper. Done.

Served it with a baguette to soak up the gravy and roasted asparagus. This dish is perfect for Pinot Noir (alternatively a nice Barolo or Barbaresco would be a nice match) , so opened up a 1993 Joseph Drouhin Bonne Mares. Excellent pairing.